From Publishers Weekly
This scholarly yet ribald history of New York City's "whorearchy" (as early wags termed the ladies of the night) also sheds light on present mores. Gilfoyle, who teaches at Chicago's Loyola University, has produced a Baedeker of NYC's early brothels, concert saloons and bawdy assignation houses. He shows how "unprecedented demographic growth, residential transience, deplorably low female wages, new real estate patterns and a sporting-male ideology and subculture undermined older patterns of sexual behavior after 1820." The details--erotic or shocking, depending on one's point of view--are here. Virgin prostitutes commanded the most money; 16-year-olds were over the hill. Quotes from such 19th-century periodicals as Rake and Whip prove that the Playboy philosophy existed long before Hugh Hefner. Yesteryear's prostitutes, the author demonstrates, were equivalent to today's homeless people--and plenty of New York men said yes to the "gay girls" who swarmed over the streets. Although he maintains an objective tone, Gilfoyle evinces a muted libertine enthusiasm for the demi-monde. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
From Library Journal
Prostitution in New York City flourished throughout the 19th century, offering high profits to landlords and fueled by immigration, low female wages, political corruption, and the sexual mores of the age. Gilfoyle's study, based on his 1987 Ph.D. dissertation, analyzes New York prostitution's growth and ultimate decline, its operation, its opposition, and (perhaps rather too minutely) its geographical distribution. He points to the political system that supported red light districts and to the overlap of commercialized sex with socially respectable entertainment. Though occasionally repetitious, his work is solidly researched, clearly organized, and a useful contribution to research collections. The manuscript won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians.
- Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
- Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
